Guest columnist: Don't confuse gun control with crime control

Vice President Joe Biden, right, accompanied by Attorney General Eric Holder, speaks during a meeting with Sportsmen and Women and Wildlife Interest Groups and member of his cabinet Thursday in Washington.

I have to disagree with Jim Restine (Guest columnist Jim Restine: Here’s what US needs for gun control, Jan. 5, amarillo.com) and his take on what America needs in the way of gun control. Mr. Restine states: “The decision to regulate arms needs to be quickly made.”

I believe that decision already has been made with law(s) already on the books when a person decides to purchase a firearm, any firearm. It is called a law enforcement background check with a caveat that convicted felons lawfully cannot possess a firearm. However, when a felon wants a firearm ... .

Mr. Restine jumps all over the U.S. Constitution in a desirous take-me-back to yesteryear, wishing Americans still had muskets and single shot cap and ball pistols. If that were so, America factually would be just another third world country led by a dictator or relative of Adolf Hitler.

Mr. Restine conveniently left out the Second Amendment’s declarative right for citizens to keep and bear arms, while calling gun owners inerrant in our wish to have any type weapon we want. Again, I and all responsible gun owners are bound by law as to the type firearm we wish to purchase. How dare anyone place responsible gun owners next to a person who has massacred those at a theater or children at a school. And yes, if there were an armed security guard present at those two tragedies, I’m willing to bet the ranch that casualties would have been much less or even nil — save for a dead shooter.

Mr. Restine wrote that our gun control laws are the “loosest in the developed world,” that gun-related deaths in the U.S. are high as opposed to other developed nations.

In 2011, the closest complete year for statistics, there were 12,664 murders, of which, 8,583 were caused by firearms. There were 12,000 fatalities by drunk drivers, with some pretty serious laws already on the books for DWI/DUI. And 195,000 souls died due to medical malpractice. There were 323 homicides related to semi-automatic assault type weapons.

Perhaps we would be better served were there strict or stricter laws involving the purchase of liquor and automobiles, along with a more serious vetting of physicians and health care providers?

What really struck me was the statement: “Nothing will stop the absolutely determined.”

In this case, the absolutely determined being those heinous crimes committed at Virginia Tech; in Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; and Newtown, Conn. In each of those cases, it has been determined that some sort of mental illness was at play, and in at least two of theses cases, parental control and accountability were seriously lacking.

Nothing will stop the absolutely determined if their desire is to wreck havoc upon their fellow man or child, for they will find a way. And by the above listed death statistics, gun control is the least of our worries when it comes to preventing unnecessary deaths.

Gun control and amending constitutional amendments are not crime control.

Dennis Palmitier is retired from the pharmaceutical industry and lives in Pampa.